ProTA

[Venom]

ProTA by TAG_Venom - Readme

Download here: https://www.tauniverse.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=177

The goal of ProTA is to bring units that were neglected in OTA into balance with the dominant meta of 2000-2010. Key important units from that time remain untouched (Flash, Thunder, Samson, Slasher, Weasel, Pelican, etc) allowing the same strategies from that era to remain viable. Most other units have had subtle and thoughtful changes that bring them into use. You can still go fast advanced and reclaim that factory to get your Fusion going if you want to, but now those formerly neglected advanced units have had their costs and stats altered to make them competitive with standard units. So you might want to keep that advanced factory after all, and you might want to replace those Metal Extractors with Moho Mines first.

Core and Arm have been balanced using the existing Flash/Samson/Slasher meta as a baseline. The Instigator is now viable and competitive against the Flash. The Raider and the Stumpy have a place in the melee. Kbots are an early option as well as vehicles. Each unit has a role where it can be the optimal choice based on the map conditions and player you’re up against. Choose the style that best suits you or one that will annihilate your opponent. Despite all the unit stat changes, gameplay tweaks and bug fixes, I still wanted it to feel like playing OTA and not too drastically different, as far as the early game strategies available and the pacing in general. I feel like I have achieved that quite well.

On top of all this, lots of quality of life improvements have been made. The GUI has been improved and extended with 12 build icons per page. Orders are on the same page and you are not required to switch to a separate page to reclaim wreckages or repair units. Build hotkeys are available and overlays are shown on the build menu, showing you which hotkey to press to build each unit. Many visual improvements have been made as well, from the mini map dot colors, to team colors, to the models and textures.

This mod has been fine-tuned and play tested by an all-star cast of OTA commanders:

TAG_Venom
TAG_ROCK
PRO_rANDY
Tiptushi
TAG_Metn
Gnug215
timmyfred
TAG_Webster
FFAxPostal
Gnug115
TAG_Dominator
OZ_coolnick
BTU_Natas
TAG_Mastah
Gnug615

In addition to the help of the play testers, the mod would not have been possible without the efforts of the following people:

gamma - Helped me a lot with scripting, brought his experience into balancing discussions and allowed me to use some TA Mayhem scripts, fixes and models
Switeck - I used many fixes from Switeck's TA Bugfix. Some of the fixes I disagree with from a gameplay perspective, but many were used and the mod is much better as a result of Switeck's work
ArmouredFish - Helped me a lot with scripting, helped me implement some game changing fixes such as non blocking sea wreckages and offered a lot of general TA knowledge throughout the process
Vohvelieläin - Helped me a lot with his modding knowledge and helped edit some models and scripts
Thaldren - Improved performance in Windows 10 and helped setup the ProTA recorder
Axle1975 - Helped me fix some issues with the recorder and gave ProTA a platform for competitive play (www.taforever.com)
poosticks - I used his TA guide extensively throughout the modding process to check unit stats and other details
Idec Sdawkminn - I used his TAU forum posts "Complete Unit FBI Guide" and "Comprehensive Weapons Guide" a lot which were massively useful when learning how to mod TA
zwzsg - His TAU forum posts provided the knowledge that allowed for non blocking sea wreckages
SnakeInTheMirror - For work on the TA complete colour enhancement pack. I used orange, teal and the improved yellow from this mod
PlasmoidThunder - Informed me of some sound category bugs within OTA that I wasn't aware of and some other things I had missed
TAAN - I used some of the Evolva models made by TAAN to improve the mod visually. Some I kept as-is, some I made edits to, to fit with my own vision
ACE_Beeky - I often checked his TAU post "A Guide To Every Unit In TA" for things I may have missed
Wotan - Changed a stubborn, anti-mod OTA player's mind about mods in general and showed me what was possible
Dragun101 - Promoted the mod to a wider audience and exposed the FAF community to ProTA and TA in general, by involving ProTA in his SCTA mod showmatch livestreams
Postal - Helped promote the mod via his Total Annihilation Replays Youtube channel, offered his Core Commander knowledge in balance discussions and helped keep me motivated to finish the project
timmyfred - Helped keep me motivated after Postal went on paternity leave. Helped with a lot of things along the way from testing fixes, putting in play time and always joined in with balance discussions
TAG_ROCK - Just for being TAG_ROCK

To anyone that I may have missed, thank you.

Hope to see you on TAF!

[Agamemnon]

Great stuff! WTG! This should be a pinned post.

[mltnschroeder]

Thanks for the link! Looks like a great mod!

[choddo]

Having just dusted off TA again after many years, I love what you've done. I don't remember all the units well enough to appreciate the balancing you've done but I'm sure it's wise. Generally so many advanced units were like Apollo programmes, a horrible resource sink and the UI improvements you've made address SO many frustrations of the original design.

[Venom]

Thanks guys! The mod is played daily on TAF. Download and join in!

Originally posted by Bear Necessity:

Great stuff! WTG! This should be a pinned post.

Any chance I can get linked in your pinned post? And how would I go about getting this post pinned? Cheers!

[Agamemnon]

I don't know, when TA was released here on Steam, someone just pinned my post. I can link it there when I get to it, I have some stress in my life, so I have to take things easy, bit by bit, but I'll try to get to it. Due to my fingers not being able to connect my old HDD, my TA is not on my new computer, but how does it install, on top of 3.9 or on top of 3.1 or either? Is it an easy installer? Perhaps you could write to me a simple part of text to paste up there, something that modern people with severe attention deficit could handle, as people do not read long parts of text like this post. Something super simple like, This is this, this is where you download it, this is how you install it, this is where you can play it, paste it to me and I can just paste it up there. Thanks.

Also if you could clarify about that new platform, is it superior to Gameranger? Does is handle adding AIs in multiplayer? Do ports need to be forwarded to play there? What versions does it handle? As of now I am unable to test this, but I trust it to be good. Never liked defensive TA play, and I know your style is very aggressive yet functional, so I know it must be a good mod.

Also didn't much like Escalation, due to the fact that the mod maker was not an expert OTA player at that time, and most of it's players skipped that and went to become expert mod players instead. I have much more respect for an view from expert OTA, which I know how that plays. There are no micro forgiving automated shooting machines, like in ESC, where all you need to do it move those ranged things around map, demolishing things. Especially core seemed to have superior range and turret tracking speed. Didn't really get into ESC, wish it was some other mod that took over TA's follies, aka the hawk festival that overwrote all other viable strategies too strongly.

But ESC had it's sides and it got better and better for small map play. Just not like TA was. TA then had only those mentioned good units, and could have been better in ways that I trust are fixed here.

[Venom]

Some great games being played on ProTA daily, on TAF! (www.taforever.com)

Join in the action!

[Postal]

Can Confirm. TAF is the place to play games. Fantastic features, active ladder, hot FRESH maps, live watchable games... too many good things to list.